PAP President Urges Tailored Investment Solutions to Empower Africa’s Small Businesses

The President of the President of the Pan-African Parliament (PAP), His Excellency Chief Fortune Zephania Charumbira has called for investment models that are tailored to Africa’s micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), youth, and women entrepreneurs. He made the call while delivering a keynote address at the Africa Strategic Investment Alliance (ASIA) High-Level Side Event on the sidelines of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Drawing on his unique vantage: simultaneously a traditional leader on the ground, a parliamentarian representing citizens, and the leader of a continental legislative body, Chief Charumbira underscored that Africa’s economic transformation will depend not on one-size-fits-all prescriptions but on context-sensitive, inclusive, and sustainable approaches.

A Continental Voice in the Halls of the UN

Chief Charumbira’s presence at UNGA marks a significant step in elevating the voice of Africa’s pan-African institutions on the global stage. According to reports, this is the first time a sitting PAP President took part directly in a UNGA session. Through his participation, PAP seeks to expand its diplomatic footprint and ensure African legislative perspectives influence global policymaking.

Re-elected in March 2024 as PAP President, the Zimbabwean traditional leader continues his mission to “Revive, Renew, Reposition, and Reinvigorate” the continental parliament. His re-election also reflects confidence in his leadership role at a moment when Africa’s global engagements are intensifying.

At the ASIA event, Chief Charumbira accepted formal designation as a champion of the Africa Strategic Investment Alliance - a pan-African platform launched to propel the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) across key sectors including agriculture, digital innovation, logistics, and green infrastructure.

The ASIA High-Level Side Event was jointly convened by the AfCFTA Secretariat and AeTrade Group, in partnership with broader global stakeholders. It builds on the momentum of the Third Africa Job Creation Forum (AJCF), held in July 2025 in Addis Ababa, where the Adwa Declaration was adopted, launching ASIA as a flagship initiative for Africa to lead its own investment agenda.

According to UNDP’s Africa office, the launch of ASIA on the margins of UNGA80 ties Africa’s continental integration, job creation, and investment strategies to global discourse.

Tailored Investment, Not Blanket Solutions

A core thrust of Chief Charumbira’s address was the imperative that investment tools must be crafted in close alignment with on-the-ground realities. He argued that MSMEs, youth-led ventures, and women entrepreneurs cannot thrive under generic frameworks designed for larger economies or different institutional contexts.

Some of the key points he emphasized:

• Granularity matters. Capabilities, constraints, and needs differ widely between, say, a rural artisan cooperative and an urban fintech startup. Investment instruments should be segmented and designed accordingly, not imposed from above.
• Inclusion must be central. Accelerating digital and financial inclusion is not optional, it is foundational. Without broad-based access to banking, payments, credit and connectivity, many firms will remain excluded.
• Jobs, not just capital. The return on investment for Africa lies largely in productive employment. Capital must be deployed in ways that incentivize labor absorption, skill development, and value addition.
• No country left behind. Regional integration must be inclusive, bridging gaps between less-developed and stronger economies, and ensuring that all AU member states share in growth.

By adopting this nuanced, bottom-up perspective, he asserted, Africa can close the gap between lofty development visions and practical implementation.

ASIA: A Strategic Platform for African-Led Investment

The Africa Strategic Investment Alliance (ASIA) represents a continental push for investment sovereignty and integration. Its mandate is closely aligned with the aspirations of Agenda 2063 and the AfCFTA, aimed at forging an environment where African nations transact, invest, and build together, guided by shared rules and shared benefits.

In some of the commentary around ASIA’s launch, AeTrade Group has positioned itself as a facilitator for AU Member States to mobilize inclusive investment and sustainable job creation. Meanwhile, the AfCFTA Secretariat, whose core mission is to oversee the implementation of the continental free-trade framework, anchors ASIA’s connection to trade, regulatory harmonization, and cross-border value chains.

The strategic value of ASIA is heightened by the momentum behind AfCFTA itself. The AfCFTA’s architecture includes a dedicated investment protocol intended to deepen intra-African investment flows and make capital allocation more predictable within the continent. Proponents say that fully implementing tariff liberalization and integrating financial, logistics, and digital infrastructure could unlock tens of billions in intra-African trade and industry expansion. The Africa Development Bank (AfDB), Africa50, and the AfCFTA Secretariat recently signed a tripartite MoU to scale infrastructure that supports trade corridors—underscoring the urgency of investment in cross-border connectivity, logistics, and sustainable infrastructure.

By positioning Chief Charumbira as a champion, the ASIA platform signals that it seeks not only policy architects but political stewardship. His combined roles as a custodian of tradition, representative of citizens, and head of PAP give him credibility across multiple spheres.

Challenges, Opportunities, and the Road Ahead

While the aspirations are lofty, translating them into impact will face headwinds. Some of the critical challenges include:

1. Institutional and regulatory fragmentation. Differing rules, standards, taxation regimes, and bureaucratic hurdles continue to slow cross-border investment.
2. Infrastructure deficits. Persistent gaps in transport, energy, digital connectivity, and logistics remain a core drag on Africa’s competitiveness.
3. Access to finance and risk capital. Many MSMEs are locked out of formal finance due to lack of collateral, credit history, or regulatory risk.
4. Capacity constraints. Technical, managerial, and institutional capacities vary widely across countries, creating asymmetries in ability to absorb and utilize investment.
5. Policy-implementation gap. Bold declarations often falter at the stage of execution, where local political will, coordination, and accountability must carry policies forward.

Yet, the opportunities are equally compelling:

• Value-chain deepening. The drive toward regional integration under AfCFTA opens doors to replacing import dependence with intra-African production and industrialization.
• Digital transformation. The mobile-first nature of many African economies presents a tailwind for fintech, digital services, and platform-based business models.
• Green infrastructure and sustainability. Africa’s abundant renewable potential yields scope for sustainable energy, climate adaptation, and green value chains.
• Youth and women entrepreneurs. With a large youthful population and growing female workforce, unlocking the potential of these cohorts is one of the continent’s biggest dividends.

Chief Charumbira’s appeal for tailored investment instruments suggests that future deals must go beyond generic “Africa risk premiums” or monolithic funds. Instead, they should combine smart subsidies, blended finance, capacity building, local currency mechanisms, guarantees, and nested incentives.

As Africa charts its path under Agenda 2063, the role of ASIA as a vehicle for African-owned investment becomes vital. The championing of context-sensitive investment approaches by PAP’s president signals an emerging alignment between political legitimacy and economic strategy.

What remains now is sustained political backing, institutional follow-through, and a shared resolve across governments, private sector, civil society, and African institutions to make inclusive, customized investment the new norm, not a lofty aspiration, but a practice that shapes prosperity generation across the continent.